Should it happen, as is sometimes the case, that the queen bee be killed, or the hive in any manner be deprived during the first eleven months of her existence, and before she has deposited any royal eggs, the most extraordinary circumstances occur. After a little while, a hubbub commences, work is abandoned, the whole hive is in an uproar, every bee traverses the hive at random, with the most evident want of purpose. This state of confusion sometimes continues for several days, then the bees gather in knots and clusters of a dozen or so, as though engaged in consultation; shortly after which, a resolution appears to have been taken by the whole population. Some of the workers select one of the worker-eggs, which had been previously deposited by the lost sovereign. Three cells are thrown into one for its reception,--the eggs in the two other cells being destroyed. The grub when hatched is fed with the royal jelly, and a queen is produced. Even if the grub had been hatched and partly fed as a worker, and had only received two or three days' allowance of the royal food, the result would be the same,--they emerge from the pupa perfect queens whereas, had they remained in the cells which they originally inhabited, they would have turned out workers. We now come to that period of the year when the queen insects, having undergone the change to the pupa state, are nearly ready to burst into life. It is now that the old queen mother, losing all her parental feelings, becomes infuriated: she rushes to the cells wherein are deposited the future queens, and instantly begins to tear them open. The guards which surround the cells make way for her approach, and suffer her to act as she pleases, whereupon she slaughters the inmates with her sting, without remorse, and, after a short time, a great portion of the working bees accompanying her, rushes out of the hive, and seeks another dwelling. This is called "swarming." Something very like concerted action and foresight seems to belong to these proceedings. It is always in calm weather, when the sky is serene, between nine in the morning and four in the afternoon, when they quit their habitation. After flying about for some time in a cluster, by degrees they fix themselves on a branch, form a group there by hooking themselves one to another with their feet, and remain perfectly tranquil. Then it is that the proprietor may secure them, and form a new colony.